default alt text checkpoint.

This has been raised a bunch of times (and is more complex than the
average checkpoint), so here is a proposed wording:

2.3.5
Do not insert place-holder equivalent text, except in cases where
human-authored text has been written for a object whose function is known
with certainty. 

techniques:

If an author does not specify equivalent text (including not specifying
that a null equivalent is applicable), do not insert an ALT attribute for
an image. This should then be caught as an accessibility error to be
repaired.

Where an object is part of a standrad library, for which alternatives have
been included, those alternatives may be added. For example, a navigation
bar might have a standard set of icons, with alternative text such as
search, index, site map linked to automatically generated pages.

Checkpoint 2.1.1 should cross-reference this, as well as the section on
checking and repairing.

Charles

On Wed, 31 Mar 1999, William Loughborough wrote:

  I forget what I raised before.
  
  2.3.5 needs wordsmithing - it's just too convoluted.
  
  2.5.2 "removed" should not have a "d" on the end.
  
  2.7.2 I may have mentioned this before: what is a "discussion of the
  help system"?
  
  3.2.1 has already been noted as requiring grammatization.
  
  3.4.2 perhaps: "Allow the author access to a text version of any site
  maps or other structural representations."
  
  It is very encouraging that *all* of the guidelines and checkpoints are
  at a level of abstraction that should account for the tools' use in any
  markup situation.  
  
  The GLs are not specific to HTML or even to our current conception of
  what an "authoring tool" might be.  I have no idea if as much can be
  said for the WCGLs but I hope they have taken into account that the Web
  of 2001 might be very different from that of 1999. 
  
  As the "desktop" becomes more or less permanently connected to the
  internet we must be ever watchful that our objectives are kept in the
  minds of those who design all the "cool" stuff that seems to be coming
  right along any day now.
  
  -- 
  Love.
              ACCESSIBILITY IS RIGHT - NOT PRIVILEGE
  http://dicomp.pair.com
  

--Charles McCathieNevile            mailto:charles@w3.org
phone: +1 617 258 0992   http://www.w3.org/People/Charles
W3C Web Accessibility Initiative    http://www.w3.org/WAI
MIT/LCS  -  545 Technology sq., Cambridge MA, 02139,  USA

Received on Wednesday, 31 March 1999 15:38:19 UTC